Environmental design
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Environmental design is the process of addressing surrounding environmental parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. It seeks to create spaces that will enhance the natural, social, cultural and physical environment of particular areas. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the
environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement) is a social movement that aims to protect the natural world from harmful environmental practices in order to create sustainable living. In its recognition of humanity a ...
beginning in the 1940s has made the concept more explicit. Environmental design can also refer to the applied arts and sciences dealing with creating the human-designed environment. These fields include
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
,
geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...
,
urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...
,
landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...
, and
interior design Interior design is the art and science of enhancing the interior of a building to achieve a healthier and more aesthetically pleasing environment for the people using the space. With a keen eye for detail and a Creativity, creative flair, an ...
. Environmental design can also encompass interdisciplinary areas such as historical preservation and
lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. ...
design. In terms of a larger scope, environmental design has implications for the industrial design of products: innovative automobiles,
wind power Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...
generators, solar-powered equipment, and other kinds of equipment could serve as examples. Currently, the term has expanded to apply to ecological and
sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
issues.


Core Principals

1. Sustainability - Minimizing the environmental impact of human activities through the use of renewable resources, energy-efficient technologies, and eco-friendly materials. 2. Functionality - Designing spaces that are practical, accessible, and tailored to the needs and behaviors of the people who will use them. 3. Aesthetics - Incorporating elements of visual appeal, sensory experience, and emotional connection into the design. 4. Holistic Approach - Considering the interconnected social, economic, and ecological factors that shape the environment.


Modern Uses

Today, environmental design is applied across a wide range of scales, from small-scale residential projects to large-scale urban planning initiatives. Key areas of focus include: - Sustainable architecture and green building - Landscape architecture and urban planning - Transportation design and infrastructure - Industrial design and product development - Interior design and space planning Environmental designers often collaborate with experts from disciplines such as engineering, ecology, sociology, and public policy to create holistic solutions that address the complex challenges of modern environments.


History

The first traceable concepts of environmental designs focused primarily on
solar heating A solar thermal collector collects heat by Absorption (optics), absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water panel, solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations ...
, which began in
Ancient Greece Ancient Greece () was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity (), that comprised a loose collection of culturally and linguistically r ...
around 500 BCE. At the time, most of Greece had exhausted its supply of wood for fuel, leading architects to design houses that would capture the
solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...
of the sun. The Greeks understood that the position of the sun varies throughout the year. For a latitude of 40 degrees in summer the sun is high in the south, at an angle of 70 degrees at the zenith, while in winter, the sun travels a lower trajectory, with a
zenith The zenith (, ) is the imaginary point on the celestial sphere directly "above" a particular location. "Above" means in the vertical direction (Vertical and horizontal, plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location (nadir). The z ...
of 26 degrees. Greek houses were built with south-facing façades which received little to no sun in the summer but would receive full sun in the winter, warming the house. Additionally, the southern orientation also protected the house from the colder northern winds. This clever arrangement of buildings influenced the use of the grid pattern of ancient cities. With the north–south orientation of the houses, the streets of Greek cities mainly ran east–west. The practice of solar architecture continued with the Romans, who similarly had deforested much of their native Italian Peninsula by the first century BCE. The Roman '' heliocaminus'', literally 'solar furnace', functioned with the same aspects of the earlier Greek houses. The numerous public baths were oriented to the south. Roman architects added glass to windows to allow for the passage of light and to conserve interior heat as it could not escape. The Romans also used greenhouses to grow crops all year long and to cultivate the exotic plants coming from the far corners of the Empire.
Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...
wrote of
greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...
s that supplied the kitchen of the Emperor Tiberius during the year. Along with the solar orientation of buildings and the use of glass as a solar heat collector, the ancients knew other ways of harnessing solar energy. The Greeks, Romans and Chinese developed curved mirrors that could concentrate the sun's rays on an object with enough intensity to make it burn in seconds. The solar reflectors were often made of polished silver, copper or brass. Early roots of modern environmental design began in the late 19th century with writer/designer
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
, who rejected the use of industrialized materials and processes in wallpaper, fabrics and books his studio produced. He and others, such as
John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...
felt that the industrial revolution would lead to harm done to nature and workers. The narrative of Brian Danitz and Chris Zelov's documentary film '' Ecological Design: Inventing the Future'' asserts that in the decades after World War II, "The world was forced to confront the dark shadow of science and industry." From the middle of the twentieth century, thinkers like Buckminster Fuller have acted as catalysts for a broadening and deepening of the concerns of environmental designers. Nowadays, energy efficiency,
appropriate technology Appropriate technology is a movement (and its manifestations) encompassing technology, technological choice and application that is small-scale, affordable by its users, labor-intensive, efficient energy use, energy-efficient, environmentally sust ...
, organic horticulture and
agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...
, land restoration,
New Urbanism New Urbanism is an urban design movement that promotes environmentally friendly habits by creating Walkability, walkable neighbourhoods containing a wide range of housing and job types. It arose in the United States in the early 1980s, and has ...
, and ecologically
sustainable energy Energy system, Energy is sustainability, sustainable if it "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Definitions of sustainable energy usually look at its effects on the e ...
and waste systems are recognized considerations or options and may each find application. By integrating renewable energy sources such as
solar photovoltaic A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to abs ...
,
solar thermal Solar thermal energy (STE) is a form of energy and a technology for harnessing solar energy to generate thermal energy for use in Industrial sector, industry, and in the residential and commercial sectors. Solar thermal collectors are classified ...
, and even
geothermal energy Geothermal energy is thermal energy extracted from the crust (geology), crust. It combines energy from the formation of the planet and from radioactive decay. Geothermal energy has been exploited as a source of heat and/or electric power for m ...
into structures, it is possible to create
zero emission A zero emission engine, electric motor, motor, process, or other energy source emits no waste products that pollute the environment or disrupt the climate. Zero emission engines Vehicles and other mobile machinery used for transport (over land, sea ...
buildings, where energy consumption is self-generating and non-polluting. It is also possible to construct "energy-plus buildings" which generate more energy than they consume, and the excess could then be sold to the grid. In the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, the
LEED Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...
Green Building Rating System rates structures on their
environmental sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
.


Environmental design and planning

Environmental design and planning is the moniker used by several Ph.D. programs that take a multidisciplinary approach to the
built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ac ...
. Typically environmental design and planning programs address architectural history or design (interior or exterior), city or regional planning, landscape architecture history or design, environmental planning, construction science, cultural geography, or historic preservation. Social science methods are frequently employed; aspects of sociology or psychology can be part of a research program. The concept of "environmental" in these programs is quite broad and can encompass aspects of the natural, built, work, or social environments.


Areas of research

*
Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
*
Construction science Construction management (CM) aims to control the quality of a construction project's scope, time, and cost (sometimes referred to as a project management triangle or "triple constraints") to maximize the project owner's satisfaction. It uses proj ...
*
Ecology Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
* Environmental impact design *
Environmental planning Environmental planning is the process of facilitating decision making to carry out land development with the consideration given to the natural environment, social, political, economic and governance factors and provides a holistic framework to a ...
*
Environmental psychology Environmental psychology is a branch of psychology that explores the relationship between humans and the external world. It examines the way in which the natural environment and our built environments shape us as individuals. Environmental psycho ...
*
Environmental sociology Environmental sociology is the study of interactions between societies and their natural environment. The field emphasizes the social factors that influence environmental resource management and cause environmental issues, the processes by wh ...
*
Historic preservation Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK) is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
*
Landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...
* Sociology of architecture *
Sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...
*
Urban planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...


Academic programs

The following universities offer a Ph.D. in environmental design and planning: *Clemson University, College of Architecture, Arts and Humanities (Now called "Planning, Design, and the Built Environment")
Arizona State University, College of DesignUniversity of Calgary
(technically the Ph.D. is in "environmental design," but encompasses the same scope as the other programs) Virginia Tech until recently offered the degree program, but has sinc
replaced
it with programs in "architecture and design research" and "planning, governance, and globalization". Fanshawe College in London, Ontario Canada offers an honours bachelor's degree called "Environmental Design and planning.


Related programs

* University of Missouri, Columbia
Ph.D. in Human Environmental Sciences
(PDF file) with emphasis in Architectural Studies. * Texas A & M University offers

that emphasizes environmental design.


Examples

Examples of the environmental design process include use of roadway noise computer models in design of noise barriers and use of roadway air dispersion models in analyzing and designing urban highways. Designers consciously working within this more recent framework of philosophy and practice seek a blending of nature and technology, regarding ecology as the basis for design. Some believe that strategies of conservation, stewardship, and regeneration can be applied at all levels of scale from the individual building to the community, with benefit to the human individual and local and planetary ecosystems. Specific examples of large scale environmental design projects include: * Boston Transportation Planning Review *BART –
Bay Area Rapid Transit Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area in California. BART serves 50 stations along six routes and of track, including eBART, a spur line running to Antioch, and Oakland Airport Connecto ...
System Daly City Turn-back project and airport extension. * Metropolitan Portland, Oregon light rail system


See also

*
Green building Green building (also known as green construction, sustainable building, or eco-friendly building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's li ...
*
Green development Green development is a real estate development concept that considers social and environmental impacts of development. It is defined by three sub-categories: environmental responsiveness, resource efficiency, and community and cultural sensitivity ...
*
Land recycling Land recycling is the reuse of abandoned, vacant, or underused properties for redevelopment or repurposing. Land recycling aims to ensure the reuse of developed land as part of: new developments; decontamination, cleaning up contaminated properti ...
*
Passive solar building design In passive solar building design, windows, walls, and floors are made to collect, store, reflect, and distribute solar energy, in the form of heat in the winter and reject solar heat in the summer. This is called passive solar design because, unli ...
*
Sustainable development Sustainable development is an approach to growth and Human development (economics), human development that aims to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.United Nations General ...
* Ecological design * Bachelor of Environmental Design


References

6.


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Environmental Design * Environment Historic preservation